Sam Franklin

Sam Franklin, Alice's boyfriend and bowling team partner, appears in eight episodes of the series.

Occupation

Neighborhood butcher shop owner

Episodes/Seasons on series

8 episodes over 5 seasons, 1969-74
Season 1: Sorry, Right Number, The Big Sprain
Season 2: Alice's September Song
Season 3: Big Little Man
Season 4: The Show Must Go On??
Season 5: Snow White and the Seven Bradys, The Elopment, Top Seceret

Contents

Biography

In "Sorry, Right Number", Alice had recently started going out with Sam and was making a lot of phone calls to him. This was only contributing to an ongoing problem with the kids wasting Mike's phone bill. Alice later visited Sam in his meat shop and told him about the problem. Sam said that he had a similar problem at his store. He used to have a phone that customers could use, but they were doing the same thing the kids were, and making him spend more monkey on the phone than actual meat. So, he got the idea to install a pay phone. Alice taught Mike this method and he did the same thing in his home.

In "The Big Sprain", Sam and Alice had a date at the Meat Cutter's Ball, but after Alice busted her ankle, she had to cancel, allowing Sam to take someone else. Alice feared that whoever he takes as a replacement, will also win his heart. As it turned out, Sam couldn't find anyone else to take, so he went to The Brady House and spent the Saturday night with her there.

In "Alice's September Song", Mark Millard, an ex-lover of Alice, comes back into her life and steals her from Sam. It would later be revealed that Mark is a scam artist, who has a history of using women for their money. When Alice finds out, he attempted to escape, but crashed into Sam, who was carrying a cold hard frozen leg of lamb at the time, knocking him out. After this, Alice went back to dating Sam again.

Sam mentioned in episode "Big Little Man" to Bobby, who had a complex over his diminutive size, that he had the same problem as a child - he weighed only four pounds when he was born and his father wanted to send him back, and he even flunked out of kindergarten - he was so short that the teacher always marked him absent.

Appearances

Trivia

The part of Sam The Butcher was played by veteran character actor Allan Melvin, who is also well known for his roles on The Phil Silvers Show where he played the part of Cpl. Steve Henshaw, Sgt. Charlie Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC, and as Barney Hefner on All In The Family. Lewis Arquette portrayed Sam briefly in A Very Brady Christmas, wearing a Santa Claus beard.